IT Skills in Return For Gropes
The mirror of a now deleted post from Craigslist, the title really says it all. I particularly liked: "I have a lot of tech knowledge in my life and regrettably no boobs."
(Via BoingBoing, thanks Cranky Media Guy.)

Building Using Recycled Paper"Papercrete [is] a mixture of Portland cement, sand, and recycled newspapers/magazines, which can be used as a building material."
Looks reasonable to me.
(Thanks, Sharruma.)

Australopithecus Afarensis Discovered in Ethiopia
The bones of the 3.3 million-year-old girl have finally been recovered from a block of sandstone originally discovered in 2000. She has now eclipsed 'Lucy', found in 1974, as the girl lived more than 100,000 years earlier.
(Thanks, Tah)

Uhm: certainly *not* the oldest human ancestor known to science, there are older fossils. But oldest known fossil of a child: yes.

Posted by LaMa in Europe on Thu Sep 21, 2006 at 12:09 PM

Yeah, sorry. Bad phrasing. I'll change it.

Posted by Boo in The Land of the Haggii... on Thu Sep 21, 2006 at 01:03 PM

Recycled paper has been used before as a building material.
Home Depot, and no doubt many other stores, now sell boards made from recycled plastic as a substitute for wood. They claim that the plasti-wood (my name, not theirs) will never split, crack, warp, or rot.

Posted by Big Gary in Floydada, Texas on Thu Sep 21, 2006 at 02:01 PM

Big Gary you are like an encyclopedia!!!

Posted by Merve in london/athens/istanbul on Fri Sep 22, 2006 at 01:43 AM

Flora i completely agree with you the Steve Irwin video is beyond fake...it was reported he was swimming above the stingray which was laying in the sand on the bottom of the ocean!!

Posted by Merve in london/athens/istanbul on Fri Sep 22, 2006 at 01:46 AM

I *like* the idea of Papercrete! Wheat Straw has been used in a similar manner in earthen bricks for thousands of years, but this seems to have superior mechanical properties, and the material couldn't be cheaper or more readily available.

Posted by Ben Burch on Fri Sep 22, 2006 at 12:46 PM

Hasn't recycled paper been used in construction for years now? I think I remember seeing recycled paper as a plywood substitue back in '89 or so.